3 year olds....ahhhh!

I was hoping that the dreaded curse of the 3 year old would pass Holt by...but alas...he's caught it. Is it possible that he is worse than my other two at this age? or have I just forgotten a little? I don't know why anyone calls the 2 age the "terrible twos"....it's NOTHING compared to 3! I don't know where my sweet little boy disappeared to, but there is a monster in his place. His sweetness comes through occasionally...I have to admit, but it's not often! Hopefully, we'll all come through this year in one piece...me with my sanity intact. It's not looking too promising though.

Zoo...again.

Since there was no school on Monday, my mom wanted to take the kids to the zoo again since we didn't get to see the baby elephant last time we were there. It was a beautiful day, and we got there pretty early, so we actually saw one of the tigers awake! He's working on a delicious breakfast. And, of course, baby Zuri...isn't she cute!

And her mom reaching for her breakfast!

Thanks for another fun trip to the zoo, mom!

"Our" children?

I LOVED the visiting teaching message for October, called "Nurture the Rising Generation". It is a stark reminder of our responsibility to our children. They have been reserved for these Latter Days and, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell put it..."they must now be preserved....and prepared for their special moment in human history!" We have a great responsibility to prepare them, to give them those opportunities to strengthen their testimonies so they will be strong, and spiritually prepared for all that is to come.
I especially loved the quote from President Gordon B. Hinkley: "Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones..." What a stark reminder to me of who these children are! It totally changed my perspective in how I care for these children, because, ultimately, they aren't really mine, they are His.
I am far from perfect, and I make mistakes in my mothering daily. But it is my hope and prayer that I can raise them in a pleasing manner to Heavenly Father...because that is my duty and responsibility. I'm humbled that He has trusted me with them while on this earth.

Halloween!!

I love that Halloween was on a Saturday this year! It gave us plenty of time to get to all the grandma's houses before we needed to head out into the neighborhood trick-or-treating.
Aren't we a scary looking bunch? Look at those cute pumpkins! The jack-o-lanterns are nice too.

Some of our trick-or-treating crew.

After loading up with pounds of candy, Korinne went to a party at Bree's house, so Colby and I took the boys to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We had a blast! The boys got to talk to many of the characters from the books....here they are playing on the motorcycle that Hagrid used to bring Harry to Pivet drive when he was a baby.

Porter getting sorted with the Sorting Hat. He got put into Slytherin....he wasn't too happy about that. Holt decided he didn't want to be sorted, so he ran the other direction. Then we went off to play Quidditch....I think we need a little more practice at that game. Next, Porter was able to master the spell to conjure up a Patronus. His was a muley buck...imagine that!

Here we met Doby, the house elf, who gave the boys each their very own snitch! Madame Pomfrey gave us some magic beans to try to fix Porter's face, but they didn't do much good.

Then we headed over to the 3 Broomsticks for some refreshing butter beer. We even had a nice chat with Professor Dumbledore. What a great time....hopefully we'll end up at platform 9 3/4 again next year!

Our ward Halloween carnival is always a lot of fun...mostly because the kids get to dress up and there's always candy involved....that's extremely important to them!
Here's my boys...one evil and one a superhero. And, of course, the beautiful princessy one...

Holt, Carsen, and Stockton at the carnival.

Here's my sweet, um, scary boy.

Holt playing ring toss....this was the best way to win!

Lexi, Abby, Korinne, and Bree....cute girls!

Get well soon, Sam!

Porter's best friend, Sam, got sooo sick with the swine flu that he ended up in the PICU at Primary Children's hospital. We were worried sick about him, so a few of the other buddies came over to make get well cards for him. Well, the cards and the multiple prayers worked, because he was home from the hospital 4 days later....thankfully!

We're sooo happy you're better Sam! Can't wait for you to come play again!

Pumpkins!

Oct. 19th we went on our annual hayride through the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkins! It was soooo windy and kinda cold...but we were still able to find some good ones!

Let the carving begin!!